DiRAC2: 100 Tflop/s HPC cluster procurement

The University of Leicester is buying a 100 Tflop/s supercomputer—a machine capable of 100 trillion calculations per second—as part of the UK’s DiRAC2 facility. This cluster will be a shared workhorse for scientists tackling problems that require enormous computational power, such as simulating the formation of galaxies, modelling the behaviour of fundamental particles, or predicting how materials behave under extreme conditions. Without this hardware, many of these calculations would be too slow or simply impossible. The impact is primarily on fundamental science. The cluster will allow researchers to run simulations that test theories about the universe’s origins, the nature of dark matter, and the forces that govern matter at the smallest scales. While there is no immediate practical application, past investments in high-performance computing have led to breakthroughs in weather forecasting, drug design, and materials engineering. This machine could similarly enable discoveries that, years from now, find their way into technologies people rely on daily—from more efficient batteries to better climate models. For now, its job is to keep the UK at the forefront of computational science.